[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Anonymity researchers present new ways to cloak your

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:21:45 -0400
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Anonymity researchers present new ways to cloak your identity
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com



http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43355,00.html

   You Can Hide From Prying Eyes
   By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
   2:00 a.m. April 27, 2001 PDT

   PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania -- It's a refrain so common it's
   unremarkable: Privacy is dead on the Net, and being able to shield
   your identity online is about as likely as winning the lottery.
   Twice.

   Just don't tell that to the researchers who gathered this week for
   the fourth Information Hiding Workshop, an event that's on the
   front lines of the pitched battle over anonymity vs. traceability.

   These roughly 100 scientists, engineers, and mathematicians don't
   want you to have to rely on the law to shield your online identity
   from prying eyes. After all, laws can change, some countries lack
   legal protection, and even websites you trust may surreptitiously
   leak information or suffer security breaches.

   Instead, they believe, anonymity-enhancing technologies should
   allow you to not hand over personal information in the first place:
   Call it the minimalist approach to privacy.

   On Thursday, Ulf Moeller, a researcher at Zero Knowledge Systems in
   Montreal, described the company's ongoing efforts to improve its
   Freedom product, which provides privacy-protected Web surfing and
   e-mail.

   He said that while Freedom is relatively speedy and not vulnerable
   to denial-of-service attacks, it is somewhat more prone to "traffic
   analysis."

   No, he's not talking about counting cars on highways. He means that
   someone who wanted to know if Alice is sending e-mail to Bob would
   -- through something like the FBI's Carnivore system -- intercept
   messages that leave Alice's computer and arrive at Bob's.

   [...]



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